A total of 10 Syrian police and servicemen were killed when unknown gunmen attacked a checkpoint some 160 km north of Damascus, Syrian state news agency SANA said.
The situation remains tense in some Syrian regions, with frequent reports of armed clashes between supporters of various political groupings, entailing civilian and police casualties.
“Army and security forces chased the armed terrorist groups on the outskirts of Homs… after the attack they carried out on an army and police checkpoint,” a military spokesman told SANA, putting the number of victims at “10 dead and several others wounded.”
It was earlier reported that an army officer and four police were killed in the attack, carried out by an “armed criminal group.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry advised its citizens to abstain from trips to Syria, where large-scale protests against the regime of President Bashar Assad have been ongoing since mid-March.
Syrian authorities blame the almost two-months-long unrest in the country on “gunmen” supported from abroad. Violence has claimed the lives of almost 150 people, according to official reports. Opposition says at least 500 have been killed.
Rights groups say some 30 people were killed on Friday as protesters took to the streets across Syria for another day of anti-government protests, dubbed a “day of defiance.”
DAMASCUS, May 7 (RIA Novosti)